Bath left it late to claim the four-try bonus point as Sale continued their miserable record at the Recreation Ground. Young centre Ben Williams came off the bench to add the crucial score two minutes from time, leaving Sale with just one win in nine Premiership trips to Bath. Bath's earlier tries had come from prop Duncan Bell, Shontayne Hape and Matt Carraro, with Olly Barkley contributing all four conversions and a penalty.

The home side, smarting from the physical punishment dished out by Northampton in their last meeting, persisted with Bell at tighthead after he had come on as replacement at Franklin's Gardens. The only other change saw Michael Claassens recalled at scrum-half. The tighthead Karena Wihongi returned to the Sale starting line-up along with the scrum-half Dwayne Peel, while Dave Seymour took over the captaincy from James Gaskell.

After Barkley's conversion had given Bath a 24-6 half-time lead, Sale reappeared with greater urgency, but soon they were under pressure again when an inch-perfect punt to the corner by Barkley in the opposite corner put Bath in a dangerous position and, although Sale earned a scrum put-in, the home eight forced the turnover. Carraro was hauled down on the other side of the field as Sale defended desperately.

Carraro led a dazzling breakout supported by Watson and the chance appeared to go begging when Nick Abendanon spilled the ball. But Sale were guilty of a forward pass and Bath took their chance from the scrum to put Ben Williams in at the corner, Barkley converting. There was still time for Sisaro Lewaravu to grab a consolation score, converted by Paul Williams.